It seems the Chinese authorities were wise to be concerned about the rise of Peppa Pig, as reports have surfaced of American poppets adopting the squeaky English accent of the petite cartoon porker.
British parents, weary of their kids adopting faux American accents after viewing the tsunami of entertainment from the other …

Re: Doctor Who

"Hey, Mike! Mike, have you seen that science program from England on the TV, you know, the one set in a box they've made yuger on the inside?"

"No, Mr President. That show promotes diversity. It is from the Devil, and Mother and I will have no truck with it."

"Well listen, Mike, I think I've got the solution to all our problems. We promised better healthcare, didn't we, and to protect people from illegal immigrants, and everyone's in favour of expanding the military, aren't they? They love my Space Force."

"What are you getting at, Mr President?"

"It's simple, Mike. We use the technology the English used, and put people's brains in robots: no more health problems for anyone. An armoured body, so no-one will be stabbed in their beds by the illegals. And those robot guys really know how to march, so they'll fit right in with the military. I bet they know how to fly spaceships too. Yeah, it'll be great. It's my greatest idea yet, even among all my greatest ideas!"

Re: Doctor Who is a documentary...

Re: Doctor Who is a documentary...

DOCTOR: Mister President, that child just told you everything you need to know, but you weren't listening. Never mind, though, because the answer's yes. I'll take the case. Fellows, the guns, really? I just walked into the highest security office in the United States and parked a big blue box on the rug. Do you think you can just shoot me?

Re: Doctor Who

Careful there Pal... That kind of yap will get you sent up for hate speach in some parts of the world. Hopefully sanaty will prevail once Britan manages to get a proper Brexit leader to run its afairs. As it is now. Its a slow burn for those that voted to leave, to realize its never going to be alowed to hapen.

Re: Doctor Who

So what you're saying is people in Britain decided attending a festival was more important that deciding the direction theit nation was going to take, directly affecting everything in their lives down to the money in their pockets? And you're making fun only of those who voted to leave? Considering it was decided by 34 percent of the electorate you should only be heaping scorn on the third of the electorate that didn't vote. You know, the ones who decided that they are fine with what everyone else decides? Anyone complaining that didn't vote, they are the ones to make fun of. Next time a vote comes up, VOTE! OR DON'T BITCH ABOUT THE OUTCOME!

Re: Doctor Who

Re: Doctor Who

Only problem I have with the current Doctor is that even though critics love it, the ratings are higher than they have been in years (consistently higher, reaching Tennant levels of consistency) and the stories are "fresher", is that people hate it simply because it's a female Doctor and she tackles actual historical issues like Rosa Parks, and anyone that disagrees with them is wrong.

I think the new Doctor is pretty good, the stories themselves feel diluted because she has too many companions so we don't see enough of her being all Doctory, three companions is only one more than having two companions but it just feels like too many. Give her one companion who she can bounce off and we may see a stronger character driven story, currently I think it's gone the total opposite of Clara where she became a stronger character than the actual Doctor.

Re: Doctor Who

It's rather good that we don't see more of her being Doctory. She's annoying, her portrayal of the Doctor lacks any authority. Colin Baker had a similar problem. Lack of gravitas. I've no problem with a female lead, but they could have found someone with more intensity, surely. I'd have wet myself if Capaldi's regeneration had revealed someone like Josette Simon.

Re: Doctor Who

She's annoying, her portrayal of the Doctor lacks any authority. Colin Baker had a similar problem.

While I disagree with you concerning the current portrayal of the Doctor, I also had hoped that it would be a different actor in the role. As it had been established with Capaldi that there is a reason for the faces worn by the character, I wanted to see Michelle Gomez again... because whatever you think about which Doctor was the best, Missy definitely had it going on.

Re: Doctor Who

I think your position actually works with my position. With so many companions it's very hard for the Doctor to assert herself and be all Doctory, some of the Doctor roles are taken by the other three characters which in itself gives the Doctor less to do. The storylines themselves are pretty strong, they just get diluted because it stops being a story about the Doctor and starts to be a story about the companions with the Doctor.

It is however true that they keep playing the "I'm now a female, if I were male things would be so much different" card but it does give us a different take on the series, how would the Doctor cope with things if the Doctor regenerated without a penis to lead the way. Could they have gone with a much stronger female lead? Possibly, but I think no matter which female actress played the Doc there would still be the whole "Dr Who Gone SJW!!!" videos with demands the Doctor grow a penis. Maybe if the Doctor decided that instead of wanting to be friends with everyone, she wanted to kick arse we would have different storylines maybe.

Re: Doctor Who

From what I've read, the problems with Colin Baker's Doctor had more to do with misjudged (and very badly implemented) ideas towards his characterisation from those running the show, combined with bad writing in general (in part due to problems behind the scenes) than it had to do with Baker's acting.

Re: Doctor Who

I do like Colin Baker as a person. He's a lovely bloke, and he loves the show to bits, probably more than any other surviving Doctor. But he was badly let down by the rest of the production team, it's true.

Re: Doctor Who

"From what I've read, the problems with Colin Baker's Doctor had more to do with misjudged (and very badly implemented) ideas towards his characterisation from those running the show, combined with bad writing in general (in part due to problems behind the scenes) than it had to do with Baker's acting."

Big Finish have developed Colin Bakers Doctor much further, and with better stories. He plays the part very well.

Re: Doctor Ruth Westheimer

Re: Doctor Who

It's also interesting with those storylines that the programme has more or less come full-circle. The original premise for the show when it first began in the 60's was that it would be more of an educational set-up, doing such adventures in historical times to showcase them and the facts about them.

Re: Doctor Who

Have to admit, I LOVE that aspect of the new series. I wish they would give up trying to crowbar aliens into it somehow. They didn't need an alien threat in that Punjab one. Nice curveball that they were only witnesses, but they could have lost the aliens altogether.

Re: Doctor Who

Only problem I have with the current Doctor is that even though critics love it, the ratings are higher than they have been in years...

Only the "critics" ratings are higher. Viewer ratings have gone down the jolly crapper.

...and the stories are "fresher"...

If by 'fresher' you mean bland and tasteless, then yes. I was really disappointed, I figured having a female doctor would be an exciting opportunity, new outlook, etc. Instead we got a shedload of scrunchy-faced 'meh'.

Re: Doctor Who

Mr President, I have a solution to the housing crisis! The British have developed technology that allows massive space inside a small, blue box! We could repackage it, but thing of the potential! Thousands of luxury condos, each taking up less than 5 square meters.. The next Trump Tower's going to be huge! I've tasked the NSA, CIA and TLAs to make it their top priority to acquire this building method they refer to as 'TARDIS'.

(and it just struck me that due to the length of time the TARDIS has been kicking around, anyone who tries to patent a pocket dimension is looking at a lot of prior art. Not that that seems to stop patent trolls.)

Peppa Pig, for those fortunate enough to have avoided the cartoon, is an ageless talking pig-child who lives in a world populated by talking mammals. The squeaking of the creature and associated theme tune is usually enough to kick off an involuntary twitch in a parent’s eyelid while also assuring a few minutes of peace as offspring are transfixed.

It's like a David Attenborough documentary compared to competing cartoons.

In The Night Garden?

Ah, the one that's all taking place in the delusional mind of a shipwreck survivor in a lifeboat on the open sea, slowly going mad from a complete lack of food and water and sucking on the corner of a blanket for salts and moisture. That one. Sleep tight, kiddies.

Re: In The Night Garden?

"Ah, the one that's all taking place in the delusional mind of a shipwreck survivor in a lifeboat on the open sea, slowly going mad from a complete lack of food and water and sucking on the corner of a blanket for salts and moisture. That one. Sleep tight, kiddies."

I think you'll find that's Alan Moore's Watchmen.

But tell me: which part do you want Sir Derek to play in a film of that book?

I used to use Peppa Pig to inform my then-four-year-old about the realities of living in England (she's British-American but we live in the USA.) such as visiting the beach in the snow, rainy weather, finding loud characters who sound like Brian Blessed everywhere, etc.

Re: About time

Re: About time

My ex did her best; she was in the pilot audience of kids in Manchester in the mid 70's and burst into tears when Big Bird come on. The other kids joined in, and Granada passed on it. It wasnt until C4 came along that we got the delights of Bert and Ernie, the Count and Oscar The Grouch.

And now for a balanced and moderate comment

The little I glimpse of children's (and adults') tv convinces me that it is deliberately dumbing down and out kids and adults alike, with just a few exceptions that are held up as justification for the tide of drivel that makes up at least 95% of programming.

Anyone who can't find enough crap to zone out to on the net now is simply not trying.

Anyone stupid enough to expose their kids to modern tv deserves the inarticulate, ADHD labelled, future psychotic that they will likely get, but I don't so pack it in.

Those having kids just to park them in front of the tv for hours a day should be shot.

Re: Clangers...

The new Doctor isnt doing too bad

Considering, that is, the abysmal plots, incessant plot contrivances and the gaping holes. Once upon a time, in a galaxy far away, the Doctor Who stories hung together and - almost - made sense. Nowadays they are riddled with inconsistencies, illogicalities and holes big enough to fly a Dalek mothership through without worrying the slightest about damaging the paintwork. Dont get me started on the saccharine political correctness and the endless guy-in-a-rubber aliens.

Re: The new Doctor isnt doing too bad

The problem with Doctor Who is that the stories have the subtly of a teenagers hastily written story for a school assignment on feminism and diversity.

These kind of stories can be a lot better, I am currently binge watching the Orville (sure I know Seth McFarlane isn't everyone's cup of tea but he does play it largely "straight" with a joke here and there), and the stories cover similar themes at times but you don't really notice that much because it's done well, female officers are treated identically to male, various races including aliens are well represented and equally promoted and encouraged to seek more responsible roles (forget skin colour, or race, when you are an amorphous blob of gel being given a position of responsibility, I'd say that's pretty inclusive ).

The Executive Director, & screenwriter of the Orville worked on a number of Star Trek series and movies and it shows by the great stories they have, the new Dr Who on the other hand constantly complains how useless men are, and we have a man giving birth because...well just because..(Red Dwarf did it way better years before), I pretty much stopped watching at that point because it was way to preachy, you have to like the main character in something like this, and though Jody Whittaker is great she is lumbered with appalling scripts, poor stories and too many sidekicks.

Fire Dr Who's scriptwriters and get someone in who can write good stories and we can see it climb the ratings again, regardless of whether the Dr is male or female, just treat the audience maturely (yes even the kids who watch it)

I have never had the chance to see or hear Peppa Pig.

Re: I have never had the chance to see or hear Peppa Pig.

I'm not sure what the down-voters think I was saying, but I was referring to when I happened to buy some Peppa Pig biscuits from the local dollar store specials bin once while changing buses on the way to work. And, as one tends to do with biscuits, I ate them for morning tea!